


Legilimency

by Yatorihell



Series: In The Darkness [55]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, ノラガミ | Noragami (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yatorihell/pseuds/Yatorihell
Summary: Yato returns to Hogwarts and begins lessons with Madame Kofuku.
Series: In The Darkness [55]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/547369
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Legilimency

No more visions plagued Yato after that night, but after what had happened to Daikoku, it had left Yato on edge.

Sakura reassured him that things would be ok, and that she would call him as soon as anything happened, but it did little to ease Yato’s qualms about the Sorcerer’s Legilimency.

Yato found Yukine and Hiyori in a single cabin on the Hogwarts Express when he boarded the train at Platform 9 ¾. He slid the door shut and slumped down into the seat opposite the pair and quickly, yet miserably, told them about the new developments. 

They listened in silence, mouths slightly agape as Yato described Daikoku’s assault, and the Sorcerer’s new power over him and what that could mean if he found out about the Order.

“Madame Kofuku can help you, Yato,” Hiyori reaffirmed Sakura’s assurance. “And you haven’t had any visions in over a week which is good.”

Yato mumbled a half-hearted agreement. His eyes slid over the window as he felt Yukine’s piteous eyes on him, watching as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station and began its long, smoky journey up into the Scottish Highlands.

The sun had long set when they arrived at Hogsmeade and a crisp frost was already forming on what was left of the greenery that led up the track to Hogwarts.

Black carriages awaited them at the station, pulled by Thestrals rather than horses. Of course, no one else could see them except Yato and Bishamon, who had gratefully climbed into the same carriage as him, Yukine, Hiyori and Kazuma. They must have assumed that the carriages pulled themselves up the barren track and under the withered trees, but Yato and Bishamon could see the Thestrals pulling their weight and their tails flick as they trotted their way up to the castle.

They sat in near silence, huddled in their robes and scarves and listening to the sound of the wheels clattering closer to the castle. The turrets emerged first between the branches of the bare thicket, the windows flickering with candles that welcomed its students’ home.

Hogwarts was as warm as ever, melting away the winter chill as students filed their way into the castle and splitting up to unpack in their respective dormitories where their luggage was already waiting.

Yato’s unpacked quickly, throwing his clothes into the chest at the end of his bed and placing assorted knickknacks into his bedside drawer alongside the previous terms junk he had collected. He looked over the hand mirror for a second before brushing away his intrusive thoughts about his private thoughts being privy to his enemy.

Yato placed the mirror in the drawer gently and slid it close with a slight thud. He kicked his suitcase under the bed and left the dormitory, heading towards the Great Hall for dinner.

The only thing he could do now was hope that Sakura was right about Occlumency lessons.

~

After their first training session of the year, Yato made his way to Madame Kofuku’s office in one of the turrets of the castle. They only had a limited amount of time to train now, but who knew, maybe the Ministry wouldn’t allow practical magic to return the following school year.

Yato paused outside Madame Kofuku’s door when he reached it, then, taking a deep breath, he knocked and entered.

The office was lined with shelves of glass jars containing plants and wiggly bits Yato didn’t want to identify. Dog-eared books lay along the shelves and the fireplace crackled gently, throwing shadows shadow against the far wall as he stepped into the room.

Yato’s attention was drawn to the desk where Madame Kofuku sat with a shallow stone basin engraved with runes and symbols in front of her.

Yato was perplexed by the object, but Madame Kofuku smiled at Yato despite the questioning look.

“Hello, Yato.”

“Hello, Miss,” Yato said awkwardly.

He shut the door behind him and took a seat opposite the desk when she gestured to it. Yato eyed the basin for a moment before looking to his professor.

“So, we’re going to be doing Occlumency in private lessons once a week until you have enough control over your mind, ok?” Madame Kofuku said. She folded her hands on the desk and cocked her head to the side, pink curls bouncing around her face.

Yato nodded. Sakura had said the arrangement would be something like this. 

“Occlumency is magical defence of the mind against external penetration,” Madame Kofuku began, reciting a textbook definition. “Those who are skilled at this can hide their true feelings and memories from a Legilimens without detection.”

“Can the Sorcerer know what I’m thinking right now?” Yato asked.

The question had plagued him all throughout the remainder of his Christmas break, but it was somewhat put to rest by Madame Kofuku’s shake of the head.

“Not when you’re at Hogwarts. We are protected by ancient spells and charms to protect our students. And the Sorcerer is far away from here.” Madame Kofuku added the last part as an afterthought, but Yato wouldn’t count on it.

Madame Kofuku continued, resting a finger on her chin ponderously.

“It seems that you can share the Sorcerer’s thoughts and emotions whenever you’re unconscious – such as sleeping. It has only happened once -,” Yato nodded his affirmation, “but Sakura thinks its best to teach you to block him out.”

At this, Madame Kofuku pulled her wand from her desk drawer and raised it to her temple. When she withdrew it, a silvery substance came away, stretching from her temple to wand like a thick spider’s web. The cord broke, and it floated down into the basin where it swirled silvery-white as a gaseous liquid.

“This,” Madame Kofuku said, “is a Pensieve.”

Yato had read about these magical objects. They were rare, personal items that allow a wizard to extract memories and view them, either by the memory-holder or by someone else. They were often buried with their owner as the memories belonged with the wizard, but it seemed this one belonged to Hogwarts.

Twice more Madame Kofuku repeated this process, dropping silvery webs into the Pensieve. She then placed her wand in her mouth, picked up the basin, turned and put it on a shelf behind her. She turned back to Yato, taking her wand in her hand.

“Stand up and take out your wand,” Madame Kofuku instructed.

Yato got to his feet, feeling nervous. They faced each other with the desk between them.

“I want you to clear your mind, and all of your emotions.” Madame Kofuku said softly. “Close your eyes and let yourself be empty.”

Yato closed his eyes, trying not to frown. Thoughts invaded his mind, but he kicked them out as quickly as they came. He stared into the darkness, listening to his own breathing, forgetting everything.

Madame Kofuku’s voice broke the silence after a few minutes. “I will try to break into your mind, and you must disarm me or defend yourself.”

Yato opened his eyes and regarded her nervously. She was a short woman, but more powerful than she appeared.

She waited for Yato’s consent, wand aimed.

Yato nodded.

_“Legilimens!”_

The spell had struck before Yato could react or resist. The office swam out of his vision and vanished. Images raced through his mind like an old film that was running out of control, vividly flashing faces and scenes and memories across his mind until he felt like he was spinning.

_Yato was four. He felt his arms looped around a dark-haired man’s neck that he would learn to call Father, and to a dark-haired girl that he would call sister…_

_Yukine on deaths door in the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk growing nearer…_

_Dementors swirling over a fading Patronus charm that allowed them to snatch his soul…_

_The Yule Ball, Hiyori’s soft, warm hand in his as he placed a gentle kiss on it and twirling her around the dancefloor, never knowing happiness like he felt in that moment…_

_‘No’_ , a voice whispered inside Yato head, overshadowing Hiyori’s laughter as Yato lifted her in the Champions dance, _‘you're not watching that, you're not watching it…’_

Yato felt a sharp pain and Madame Kofuku’s office snapped back into view. He was on one knee, the other having a stabbing pain as he realised that he had fallen to the ground and bashed his knee on her desk. Yato looked up and found Madame Kofuku rubbing her wrist, a painful red welt growing on her pale skin.

His mouth went dry. “Did I…?”

“It’s just a stinging hex,” Madame Kofuku hushed. She dropped her arm to her side. “Did you feel yourself cast that spell?”

“N-No,” Yato answered. He felt nothing at all, only the memories.

Madame Kofuku watched Yato’s face closely as he stood up. “You need to stop me as soon as I enter your mind, else you’ll lose control.”

Yato nodded, but a terrifying thought crossed his mind, and he dreaded the answer.

“Did you see everything I saw?' Yato asked.

“Only flashes,” she replied. “You don’t need to worry; I won’t tell.”

Yato felt his cheeks grow red, embarrassed and ashamed for her to have seen such dark moments of his past, but he hoped it didn’t show too much.

“Remain focused and use your mind to block out me,” Madame Kofuku said. She raised her wand again, hiding her injured arm behind her back this time, and cast the spell.

_“Legilimens!”_

Again, the spell was too fast, and Yato was captured in a web of memories.

_Yato was twelve, curled up in a ball in a dingy hotel he called home where the winter air leaked through cracked glass and the trains constantly rattled his bed as he hid from the Father who tortured him…_

_Sakura, emaciated and sullen in the Shrieking Shack after escaping Azkaban, and the pain in her eyes when she realised that her own brother didn’t recognise her…_

_Nora, underwater in the Great Lake waiting to be saved, but abandoned by Yato in favour of his friends._

_Suzuha’s green eyes staring back at him, the life drained, and his tunic splattered with blood under a broken headstone…_

Yato screamed, and the world fell away once again. He found himself on his knees on the cold stone floor, head in his hands as his head throbbed at the last memory.

Slowly, Madame Kofuku crouched on the ground beside Yato, stroking his back with sad eyes. She had seen these memories much clearer than the others.

“It’s ok,” she shushed. “It will get easier, but you need to try harder if you want to repel the Sorcerer.”

Yato took a few shaky breaths before he removed his face from his hands, palms slightly wet. He felt anger swell in his chest, to have his mind laid bare, his private memories used against him.

“Isn’t it more useful if I can see what the Sorcerer is doing?”

The question shocked Madame Kofuku, but Yato felt his reasoning was sound. All he had heard was repel, repel, repel, but what if Yato wanted to let the Sorcerer in? What if he could see more if the Sorcerer were in his head with him?

“The last thing you want is him in your head, Yato!” Madame Kofuku exclaimed. “Even to allow such a thing, a Legilmens’ can distort your mind, make you see things that aren’t real, and drive you insane!”

She rose a second after Yato and faced him head-on, giving him a warning look that Sakura had given him many times before.

Yato huffed and stared straight back at her. “If I hadn’t seen Daikoku -,”

“If you hadn’t seen Daikoku, it would have been too late to save him. For that I thank you. But to let the Sorcerer in, he will control your mind and change you,” Madame Kofuku bit back the venom in her words, but it was enough to shock Yato back to reality.

He hadn’t thought of it that way. It was some constellation that he’d been able to save Daikoku, but for the Sorcerer to control his mind… it didn’t bear thinking about what he could make Yato do.

Guilt set in as he realised that he let his temper get the best of him, and that he used Daikoku against Madame Kofuku who was only trying to help him.

Yato looked away.

Madame Kofuku watched Yato for a few moments, calming herself. When she spoke again, her words were weighed with consideration.

“The Sorcerer must have been unaware of your… connection, until recently. Subconsciously linked perhaps, but only recently did he feel your emotions too. Those that he is not accustomed to.”

Yato blinked.

_Happiness? Love?_ Those were the emotions Yato felt over Christmas. He had seen Daikoku through a snake’s eyes – the Sorcerer’s eyes – which confirmed Sakura’s theory he was an Animagus, and Madame Kofuku’s that he had access to Yato’s mind now.

“He must realise it works in reverse, like stepping through a door in and out of someone's mind,” Madame Kofuku continued.

Yato shuddered. “Are you sure he could… control me?”

“He might, which is why you need to learn Occlumency,” Madame Kofuku affirmed gently.

After a second Yato nodded. He stepped back and raised his wand without a word. He wouldn’t let the Sorcerer get him.

Madame Kofuku raised her wand at Yato with a sad smile.

“ _Legilimens_!”

~

Yato threw himself on his bed after his late training session with Madame Kofuku. He groaned, thankful that no one was in the dormitory to hear him. He hated his life.

Yato rolled onto his back and sighed at the canopy that draped over his bed. He turned his head to the side to look at his drawer and reached an arm up to open the top compartment. Yato fumbled around, feeling old sticky sweets and other miscellaneous junk within the drawer, then frowned.

Yato rolled himself over onto his front and peered into the drawer.

His mirror was gone.

Yato frowned harder and check the other drawers, rifling through old socks and last year's homework. He looked under the bed and behind the drawers, he crawled over to his chest and pulled out his clothes. He even hung over the edge of the bed and opened his empty suitcase.

_Where the hell is the mirror?_ Yato tutted at himself. He was sure he brought it back. 

Yato sat up and looked around, cross-legged on his bed. He let out another frustrated sigh. Now he couldn’t talk to Sakura. He hoped she would send Coo Phone – who now resided at Grimmauld Place as his job had been stolen by a mirror – with a message once she realised the mirror was at home.

Yato dragged a hand over his eyes. It had already been a long day; he would look for the mirror again tomorrow.

For the time being, he would have to wait to talk to Sakura.

~

On Friday morning, Yato huffed and shrugged on his robes and gave a scathing look over his side of the room. Sakura must have noticed the mirror was at home by now, because it definitely wasn’t at Hogwarts.

Yato found Hiyori and Yukine after breakfast, heading down to their first class of the day: Potions.

Yato avoiding looking at Madame Kofuku’s arm as she taught them how to make a hair-raising potion, despite it being covered by a long jumper that kept the winter cold at bay in the dungeons.

In the library at break time, Yato quietly told Hiyori and Yukine how his Occlumency lesson went the night before, looking ashamed as he revealed that he had injured Madame Kofuku in the process. He didn’t dive too far into the details of the memories he saw, but he was greeted with encouragement.

Yukine did point out that Occlumency may be a good topic to study in the Hogwarts’ Order, once he got the hang of it.

Yato agreed, but he felt that wouldn’t be happening any time soon.

Friday’s final class for Yukine and Hiyori was Herbology, meaning they had to leave Yato for his dreaded Ancient Seals class.

Although the sun was more persistent in warming up the greenhouse, it still wasn’t enough to keep the students cold as they worked. Today they were working with Mimbulus Mimbletonia, a cactus-like plant that was covered in boils instead of spines.

Hiyori eyed it uncertainly, unnerved by the gentle pulsating that reminded her of a heartbeat. Yukine discreetly aimed his wand at it and sent a jolt of magic through the plant, causing it to spurt a thick, stinky liquid out from its boils.

Hiyori shrieked and cursed Yukine, hitting him gently on the arm.

Yukine smiled to himself as Hiyori tentatively handled the plant. He watched her stiff fingers as they tried to manipulate the roots into a new pot, the cold seeping through her gloves and making it impossible.

“Y’know,” Yukine leaned in and whispered to Hiyori, “You could take some gardening gloves with you after class.”

Hiyori shot him a look. “No, Yukine.”

Yukine wiggled his fingers at her. He was intent on pestering her until she got some decent gloves, even if it meant teasing her. “But they’re sooo warm.”

“I’m not doing it!” Hiyori insisted.

Unbeknownst to Hiyori that, by the end of the class, Yukine had decided to get her a pair when no one was looking.

The Great Hall was bustling with activity, candles illuminating the room as the dark, snowy night set beyond the tall glass windows. Dinner was served, but Yukine didn’t savour it. He ate as quickly as he could, knowing that everyone – teachers included – would be here for some time at least.

Yukine slipped out of the Great Hall and headed towards the bathroom but diverted out into one of the courtyards once the coast was clear. He was careful jogging down the steep stoned path that led to the greenhouses, frost beginning to settle over them.

The greenhouses were never locked, something he had discovered from Suzuha at the Yule Ball. Yukine winced at the memory of that night and let out a breath that misted in the air before him.

The glass door opened with a frosted squeak. Yukine didn’t bother closing it; he’d only be a minute. He picked his way over plant pots and sharp tools, making his way to the back of the greenhouse where they picked up gloves and aprons for class. He picked up a heavy pair of gloves, weighing them in his hand, and smiled. Hiyori would be so mad.

Something clattered behind him.

Yukine spun around, expecting to be busted by a teacher, but an unexpected and unwanted face greeted him.

Nora.

Yukine looked at her, eyes wide. She looked like a ghost, and he couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t one. Her skin was sickly pale, practically reflecting the moonlight with its translucency. Her dark hair was kept in its usual straight cut bob, making her look like a porcelain doll as she rigidly stepped towards Yukine. He could see her shaking under her ill-fitting clothes, the jacket not thick enough to keep her warm.

Yukine placed his hand on the desk behind him, not sure what to do. He clutched the gloves tightly in the other. How was she at Hogwarts?

“I-I c-can’t r-reach Y-Yato…” Nora’s breath clouded in front of her face. Her whispered voice on the edge of breaking, raspy and sore, as if she hadn’t spoken for weeks.

Yukine was silent for a moment, watching Nora cautiously.

“Nora… are you ok?” Yukine asked tentatively. He disliked the girl, but he didn’t want to see her like this, no matter what he had said in the past.

Nora continued to approach, her eyes locked on Yukine.

“I-I c-can’t -…”

Nora was in front of him now, a breath away, and her voice faded.

Yukine looked at her in confusion. He lifted his hand from the desk and reached out slowly. She couldn’t actually be here.

His heart beat faster when he felt the tinge of warmth emanating from her skin. She _couldn’t_ be here.

Nora’s eyes were as black as the night above them, level with his own.

“I-I n-need…”

Nora reached her hand to Yukine’s face, and he froze as her face drew near. Her lips briefly met his, cold as snow and as lifeless as the boy who had kissed him here first.

“You.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hate everything  
> I think I planned this kiss way before Nora did it in the manga cos I like to hurt Yukine #prediction


End file.
